INSIDE GEOGRAPHIC
COLLECTOR'S EDITION
Maya Wonders
National Geographic published
its first story about the Maya
in its March 1913 issue, a report
on the excavation of mysteri
ous temples in the jungles of
Guatemala. The lost civilization
has continued to fascinate.
Recent decades have brought
new understanding of its
culture. Far from the peaceful
stargazers once imagined, the
Maya had "a magnificent Classic
civilization that went down in
great violence and destruction,"
says Geographic senior writer
Ann Williams, who worked on
the new special issue, Myster
ies of the Maya. It covers 2,000
years of Maya history, tracing
the civilization's rise and fall,
including its early agrarian days
and the Postclassic flowering
at sites like Chichen Itza on
the Yucatan Peninsula. The
publication is on newsstands
August 12 ($10.95).
A fifth-century incense burner depicts
a Maya god holding a human head.
PHOTO:KENNETHGARRETT